A 57-year-old Ukrainian woman from Kherson testified to US lawmakers that Russian forces beat her, threatened to rape her and forced her to dig her own grave.
Lyubov’s story was one of two powerful and horrific testimonies shared with House Foreign Affairs Committee members at a hearing about Russian war crimes Wednesday. Their last names were withheld by the committee at the survivors’ request.
Her experience, along with that of 16-year-old Roman, who was forcibly transferred to Russia and placed with a family who attempted to indoctrinate him, are just some of the tens of thousands of incidents of war crimes alleged to be committed by the Russians since their invasion of Ukraine last year.
Ukrainian Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin, who also testified at the hearing, said his office registered around 80,000 incidents of potential war crimes, and to date has convicted 31 Russians for war crimes in Ukrainian courts.
The hearing comes as some lawmakers work to rally continued support for Ukraine and push for the Biden administration to bolster the weapons it is providing Kyiv.
“These are more than war crimes. These are more than crimes against humanity. What we are witnessing in Ukraine is genocide,” Committee Chair Michael McCaul said in his opening statement.
“(Russian President Vladimir) Putin and Kremlin senior officials have made clear that their intent is to systematically wipe out Ukraine’s existence,” the Texas Republican said.
“The free world cannot sit idly by and allow this to happen. It is beyond time that this administration, along with our allies, provide Ukraine with the weapons they need to win,” he said, referencing long-range missile systems like ATACMS.
“Ukrainians will have to deal with all of the consequences of this evil act,” Ranking Member Gregory Meeks said.
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